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The Wolf of Wall Street - This is the funniest satire of our modern system of Finance I have ever watched. Everyone was great in it, everyone was funny and everyone was just sooo unlikebly likeble that you can't help but go along with them yet wanting them to die horrible horrible deaths. Why do people not see that it is showing the finance system in a reducto ad absurdum light showing how horrible and psychopathic they all are. I actually felt sorry for the FBI guy when in a lot of films FBI is shown as a horrible institution. That's what it is raging at...you..you for letting this happen, you for actually liking these guys, you the people in the cinema cheering these guys on. It is an important movie but people won't see that.

Wasn't it something about fridges?
I'm planning to binge on Indy and Bond. Eventually.

Anyway, Armour of God II: Operation Condor is a pretty great film. Indiana Jones, but dropped of all pretences of seriousness. With 3(!) girls tagging along. There's Nazi gold, heroic sacrifices, natives. In adittion, women wearing only towels, Jackie flinging chewing gum into his mouth, ridiculous car/bike chases, spanish actors playing German characters (Interchangeable Asian Cultures works both ways).
The fight scenes are truly preposterous. Stuntman falling flat on their faces, flying through the air, near decapitation, flying cars, flying motorcycles, throwing cars into the ocean, modesty-preserving towel throwing, there is everything to choose from.
The comedy styles is more slapstick comedy than kung fu (as with other Jackie Chan films). It's a more extreme version of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Totally recommended.

@Xercies: I though the best critique of the Wall Street scene was American Psycho, even more so the book. It wasn't a comedy and it was very topical for the time. Even now the book is still a great read. The film has the awesome bussiness card scene, but the rest it's not exactly bad.

Been catching up with a few films. Recently watched Winters bone which was the break out moment for one Miss Jennifer Lawrence. Girl needs to save family home from repossession after meth cook father puts it up as collateral for bail and then skips in poverty stricken rural backwater. Not a bad film at all with a great supporting cast including John Hawkes as her rather scary uncle and Dale Dickey as the local clan matriarch.

Prisoners with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. A pretty intense drama following the abduction of two children and the resulting police investigation coupled with the anguish of the family involved. Excellent performances all round, but extremely raw in places.

Why yes you're right I'm deliciously evil
Tradition is the tyranny of dead men
Steam:Kadayi Origin: Kadayi
Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes....The Conclave beckons ... PM for details

Well, I wanted to watch Wing Chun, but for some reason I ended up watching Kung Fu Wing Chun, a remake(I think) of the original.
Blew me out of the water. Absolutely amazing. The only thing it lacks is budget, the rest is all there. Amazing acting by a rising star (that got murdered by her husband, but let's not go there), Colin Chou (from Matrix fame) and the supporting cast. They aimed for wire-fu, but since the budget wasn't there, they toned it down a little and it's a bit more down to earth. Still, they are quite enjoyable. It has humour, action and hidden depths.
At the level of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, just without all-star cast.

Just saw Talented Mr Ripley - how have I missed it, great great movie, and I loved the weird/uneasy vibe of many of the scenes, fitted perfectly.

Originally Posted by Screwie

On (US) Netflix last weekend I watched Dead Heat, an 80s movie starring Treat Williams as a detective investigating the sudden appearance a gang of criminals who have come back from the dead. I had never heard of this film before and wasn't expecting much but I was stunned - holy crap it is amazing.

ooh I've been scavanging Netflix for good movies, so will need to check it out!

You’re one of five suspects of a sabotage onboard a 1920s Slavic Airship. Find the culprit or confess your crime in an open-ended, detective adventure game -Karaski: What Goes Up...

Wing Chun totally lives up to the hype. It's actually a different genre from the remake.
While the remake is a modern film, in the same vein and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this is a truly an old-school film, more similar to Butterfly and Sword and the Heroic Trio.
Fast-paced, crazy action scenes that surely will go down as among the best in business.
The acting is just great, with well-known names as the titular Michelle Yeah and Donnie Yen (and a cameo by the Jade Fox from CTHD), but some great hidden gems, as the actress that plays her aunt Abacus and the dirty scholar. It's also ... interesting to see so much innuendo, including that foot massage scene.
In a nutshell, this goes down as one of the best films I have ever seen.

So I saw Ender's Game tonight, and have to say it's probably my favourite sci-fi of recent times. It does a pretty good job of building the characters and the world, and Harrison Ford really sells the heart-less Colonel. It has some really cool visuals, and the "look our hero's clever!" shtick is actually passable, where as a lot of movies really half-ass it.
I also really liked the [SPOILERS] argument that the Colonel and Ender have after Ender find's out he's basically committed a war crime. It really hammered home the "This is a shitty thing we're doing" aspect. [/SPOILERS]

I also caught Filth recently. and well, uh, has anyone else seen it? I really don't know what to say about it.

I liked it, I think. James MacAvoy was brilliant. The basic premise is the mentally unstable main characters' decent into madness. I think they may have marketed the movie wrong though, as all the trailers I've seen for it seemed to suggest it was just simple, and vulgar for the sake of being vulgar, when I really don't think it is.
It is incredibly offensive at times though, but it's aware of it, and it's not saying/doing those things with the expectation that they're acceptable, rather to show how terrible the main character is.

Space Jam is actually not very good, as a comedy. The serious bits absolutely ruin it, but Looney Toons are the star of the show. Could be salvageable by chopping off all the non-comedic bits, but that would turn it into a short.
Bill Murray as Bill Murray is quite nice too.
Worth it for the theme song alone.

Jaws is better than I expected. It's a slasher film with a ridiculous premise, but they manage to wrangle a good film out of it.
Robert Shaw absolutely nails it as the Ahab-like captain, and Dreyfuss is equally awesome as the nerd sharkphilic.
It manages a good balance between horror(applying the Nothing is Scarier mantra), drama and the funnies. Don't forget the Corrupt Mayor that turns out to be not so evil character. The shark is the true antagonist.
Worth it for the theme song alone.

Space Jam is actually not very good, as a comedy. The serious bits absolutely ruin it, but Looney Toons are the star of the show. Could be salvageable by chopping off all the non-comedic bits, but that would turn it into a short.

If you're looking for a good Looney Tunes feature film, watch Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It's everything Space Jam should have been and captures the frantic humour of the original shorts quite well.

Alternatively, watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Though that advice applies to just about every situation.

Incidentally, I missed the Bond chat on the last page, but I'd say the essential films are (in chronological order): Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, Goldeneye, the first half of Casino Royale and Skyfall.

If for some reason you still want more Bond after that, watch Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, Octopussy, Licence to Kill and The World Is Not Enough. You can safely skip the rest of the franchise.

Jaws is better than I expected. It's a slasher film with a ridiculous premise, but they manage to wrangle a good film out of it.
Robert Shaw absolutely nails it as the Ahab-like captain, and Dreyfuss is equally awesome as the nerd sharkphilic.
It manages a good balance between horror(applying the Nothing is Scarier mantra), drama and the funnies. Don't forget the Corrupt Mayor that turns out to be not so evil character. The shark is the true antagonist.
Worth it for the theme song alone.

It's kind of funny. I was around five when it came out and back then it took a long time for movies to be shown here, and they ran them for much longer too, so I kind of grew up with Jaws posters and always had the impression that it was sort of generally looked down upon (didn't help that the title it got here could be translated to 'The Yawn of Death"), some movie for silly teenagers or such.
I didn't watch it properly until maybe five years ago and it is actually rather good. The premise is silly as you say, but they certainly make it work.

This movie IS clearly awesome. It's full of beauitful shots of Australian landscapes, girls and lovely Romanian folk songs.
And then suddenly lovecraftian horror emerges on top of all of it. Seriously, this movie is really scary.

If you're looking for a good Looney Tunes feature film, watch Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It's everything Space Jam should have been and captures the frantic humour of the original shorts quite well.

Well, I just found out that Philip Seymour Hoffman died today. I don't really know what to say. He was certainly of of the best actors of the last ten, twenty years. So many great movie. Apparently some drug overdose. Shit sucks.

Also, if you haven't watched Synecdoche, New York yet, you should do so as soon as possible. It's one of the best movies ever made.

Japaneses have a unique characteristic which forces them to perceive of all possible way their society may be ruined, natural disasters, foreign invasion, and so on, and of course civil unrests; the perception making all those doomsday preppers in the west like small-time. This movie is describing how censorship could go to the extreme, and how civilians fight against such oppression. While the Japanese government (fictional of course) enforces strict censorship to confiscate and destory all disapproved publications, some zealous supporters of freedom of speech rose up to establish the Library Defense Force, under oath to resist the censorship. Eventually, after some decades, both sides militarized and a full-scale war broke out, a war for the libraries.

the Japanese government (fictional of course) enforces strict censorship to confiscate and destory all disapproved publications

Never heard that one before...
I'm kidding of course, looks interesting. With Chiaki Kuriyama, from Battle Royale.

As for the obligatory obituary, I only seen him in The Big Lebowski and he was absolutely amazing.

Whoever recommended Ocean Heaven owes me a big box of tissues. TVTropes says this needs more love, but I'm not sure it isn't talking about me.
This is a story of a widower with cancer taking care of his autistic son. If this looks similar to Rain Man, it's because you haven't seen it, this film actually treats everyone with respect.
This film is the perfect storm of the tearjerkers, not just the plot but the meta-plot.
- Jet Li waives his salary to raise awareness for the difficulties autistic people endure, not just in China. He also blocks any attempt of referring to his martial arts films in the marketing
- Directed by a professor of Beijing Film School who's dealing with autistic people for decades
- Actors spend months visiting autistic children
- Music by Joe Hisaishi, of Nausicaä fame
Some IMDb reviewers raise the "issue" that chinese people don't conform to idealized American stereotypes. They bury their dead and there are (underfunded, like in most places) public social security systems in place.
The fact this isn't widely distributed in the West is the reason we can't have nice things.